Dons drug had 'euphoric' effects

Former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank listed banned drugs on the consent forms given to Essendon players. Picture: James Croucher. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Macca cartoon. David McArthur cartoon. WINDY HILL. (David Evans. Essendon. Letters. Consent form. Reid letter. Ziggy report.)

THE controversial drug prescriped to Essendon players last season has "euphoric" effects but doesn't help weight loss, according to a researcher who conducted clinical trials.

Club documents obtained by the Herald Sun show some Essendon players were prescribed the anti-obesity drug AOD-9604 last season.

But Essendon last night insisted the consent forms did not prove any of its players used the substance, which is banned for use by athletes.

The forms signed by Bombers players and officials reveal key details of the supplements program at Windy Hill in 2012.

They show some players were recommended weekly injections of AOD-9604.

Injection schedules for Thymosin are also documented. Some types of Thymosin are banned by doping authorities.

The forms state that "all components of the intervention are in compliance with current WADA anti-doping policy and guidelines''.

An Essendon spokesman said last night: "It is a matter for ASADA to determine these matters.''

"The club certainly does not accept that the signing of the consent forms means that the supplements were administered, and this kind of speculation is just unnecessarily harmful to the players.''

Today, Adelaide University Chair of Medicine Professor Gary Wittert has revealed the results of a series of clinical trials of AOD-9604 in 2007.

Wittert led a team which conducted three human trials into AOD-9604 including a final three-month test.

"We designed a six-month study properly powered to look at the outcome of 'Would it be a drug suitable for weight loss?' and the outcome from that was a definitive no," Wittert told Adelaide news website INDAILY.

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Wittert said after the trial he had "assumed the company had stopped developing the drug".

"Now it's been in some cream and just about every journalist has called it an anti-obesity drug, which it ain't – it's a failed anti-obesity drug at best."

Wittert said there was no clinical evidence that it helped with tissue repair or had any other benefit in people.

"However, when we gave it intravenously, we noticed that 60 per cent of people felt a euphoric effect, so (the company) and I patented it as an anti-depressant."

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Wittert told INDAILY he didn't know why a football club would prescribe an unproven drug.

During the intravenous trial no person had more than three doses which were given at least a week apart.

The dosages and number of injections for individual Essendon players are detailed in their consent forms. Some players were recommended one injection a week for the whole 2012 season.

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigators have begun grilling Essendon players on their participation in and knowledge of the club's supplements program.

Bombers chairman David Evans said this week his club had "never conceded that our players have been given banned substances in 2012''.

He said the club was becoming increasingly confident its players would escape penalties.

The consent forms appear to remove any doubt that at least one substance - AOD-9604 - prescribed to some players did fall outside anti-doping rules.

If issued with an infraction notice by ASADA, it will be up to lawyers for the players and the club to argue why this was not a breach.

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It is known some Essendon players refused to be injected as part of the supplements program.

The signature of Dank appears on all the documents as well as that of a witness and the player the program was devised for.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has stated that AOD-9604, which is not approved for human use, is banned.

Asked about the status of Thymosin, an ASADA spokesman said last week: "The status of Thymosin in sport is dependent on the type of Thymosin ... for example, Thymosin Beta 4 has been prohibited under S2 of the WADA Prohibited List since at least 2011.''

Essendon has not said which type of Thymosin its players were recommended by Dank.

Melbourne biochemist Shane Charter has claimed Dank ordered the banned Thymosin Beta 4 from him last year.

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